In his anthology of great speeches Lend Me Your Ears, William Safire writes: “A good speech has a beat, a changing rhythm, a sense of movement that gets the audience tapping its mind’s foot.”
What brought this to mind was a remarkable speech by Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans.
Landrieu’s speech, which is making the rounds on social media, explains why his administration took down statues celebrating the Confederacy. The speech, articulate, supported by facts and absent any kind of teleprompter or notes, is a reminder of the power of the spoken word reminiscent of the brilliant unscripted oratory of Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy and Pierre Trudeau.
Musing about Landrieu’s impressive eloquence took me back to my own elementary school in the 1950s and being “encouraged “ (and I use the word loosely) to participate in our New South Wales beachside town’s annual eisteddfod.
The eisteddfod is a Welsh-derived festival of music and spoken word and was, in the early twentieth century, adopted into Australian culture.
The largest, the Sydney Eisteddfod, was first held in 1933. This year, it included 350 events across all performing arts, both spoken and musical, with 30,000 performers.
Many small towns in Australia, like my own, also held local eisteddfods.
My elementary school saw the value of the eisteddfod experience for us. It specialized in preparing us for public spoken performances, sometimes in front of a large audience and a judging panel. The performance consisted of poetry recitations, prepared speeches on a given topic and what was called “impromptu reading” — reading expressively from a passage we had only had a minute or so to peruse.
I mention this because, although I did not realize it at the time, my childhood eisteddfod experience set me up for a career in public education — not only as a beginning teacher comfortable in a classroom, but in other later-life situations that required being relaxed while speaking in public or to a group of peers.
Sadly, the art of effective public speaking seems to be in decline, with leading politicians who are unable to prepare a cogent argument on an issue resorting to the Trump playbook of personal “ad hominem” attacks.
But all is not lost. Not yet anyway. There was, before a curriculum update in 2016, a Grade 10 two credit Spoken Language course that was designed to support students in the development of spoken communication.
With the curriculum redesign in 2016, the course shifted to Big Ideas and a competency-based approach. Teachers now explore competencies and skills associated with oral communication and the different tone and tenors appropriate for public speaking across a variety of subject areas.
These skills, even at a relatively young age, help kids develop the critical thinking skills necessary to prepare a speech or argument. Composing a speech not only requires logical thought but a choice of vocabulary. Then, in addition to this, the presentation itself requires a sense of pacing and clear articulation.
That’s a lot to learn in a two-credit course, but the ability to speak effectively — not only individually but to groups — is an essential skill in our culture.
Public speaking remains, in the general population, one of the most dreaded forms of communication. Glossophobia or speech anxiety is the most common fear people have across the globe.
And here’s where defeating speech anxiety should begin, in the type of classroom that promotes peer-to-peer interaction and teamwork to find solutions and effectively address complex problems.
Most importantly, it is essential in a collaborative/group-discussion learning situation that students are knowledgeable about the subject being discussed. That, kids learn, is the beginning of gaining confidence to present ideas and opinions.
The ability to speak effectively about the issue at hand not only helps students improve their collaborative abilities but exposes them to different ideas and diverse opinions.
Even experienced speakers admitted that becoming an effective public speaker is a lifelong pursuit.
Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, said: “If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.”
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
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